Advice ??

[Sabeking]

I have a 1/2 marathon coming up in mid April. I ran 8 about four weeks ago. Since then I have only run a handful of quick runs because of either weather, scheduling and most recently a hefty cold. To top it off I have an extra 10 pounds that I am trying to get off from the winter, so my food intake has been lacking carbohydrates. Well today I ran 2.5 and struggled!! I had to stop several times. I am wondering where to go from here?! Will I get my cardiovascular endurance back? Should I start eating moe carbohydrates again? I have currently lost 7 pounds. I was going to run 10 this weekend but I could barely take 2.5. I know at the end of the day I can do the race but at this point I'm a little disappointed knowing my time will not be so great. My knees aren't so good from the years of running and I was hoping to go out with a bang this year. Prideful I know. I should probably be happy I can run.

How would you train moving forward?

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm not an expert in a lot but I am in losing weight while training for longer runs. Eat those carbs. Eat a nice balanced diet. Don't deprive yourself of nutrients you need. I actually had to stop my loss before my true goal because I needed to fuel my longer runs. As long as you aren't actually overeating, those pounds will be there to deal with after the run.

ETA (now that I'm on my computer instead of my phone)....

I hope I didn't sound pessimistic or negative above. I just think that right now your race is the priority. Fuel yourself so you can do the race. Carbs are rather necessary for energy.

And if you don't do as well as you wanted...be gentle with yourself and give it a few weeks. In Jan I ran the WDW Half while horribly sick (seemed like a good idea at the time). And I forgot that my Garmin was on auto-pause. So the time I thought I had was actually 10 minutes shorter than the time I had been on the course (which was already so much longer than I anticipated), and it was all just so devastating to me. But now it's March, wow, 2 months, and I'm OK with it. It happened but hey, I finished.

But definitely start eating a more balanced, "runner's" type of diet soon. IMO. Losing healthily and running healthily are a hard combo to perfect!

 

[AprilRunsDisney]

I'd second the advice to add some carbs back in before the race. Have you considered adjusting your time goal and maybe adding walk intervals?

 

[Sabeking]

Thank you both for the advice; I agree about putting the carbs back in. I plan on trying to do a longer run tomorrow. I loaded up on carbs and water tonight! Hopefully I will have good news!

 

[Castle2Castle]

With respect to struggling with 2.5 and going longer, are you trying to run straight with no breaks or do you utilize run/walk? Maybe play with it or adjust the ratio early to better pace yourself, stretching it back out as you regain your endurance.

I'll defer on the diet advice! Good luck getting your legs back under you and have a good race!